Am I doing something wrong with my traps?

[cal_ka]

I've set up some stick traps in my neighbor's house as well as some box traps in the forest nearby. I've baited them appropriate (worms for the stick traps, carrots / cabbages for the box traps. However, my bait constantly disappears without anything caught in the trap!

I check my traps every ~4 hours in-game, except when I sleep (~8 hours in that case), and every time, some of the traps have lost their bait...but none of them have the "check traps" option to collect the animal. The only time I've gotten "check traps" is with mouse traps.

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Does low level trapping allow a high probability of the animal instantly escaping or something? I read somewhere that the animal should escape within 24 hours, but for me it's more like within 4 hours...

[Shenji]

I remember the pzwiki said you should check traps every one hour, maybe 4 hours just a bit too long.
I'm still looking for the trapping magazines to make traps, where should I look for?

[WillieSea]

The bigger traps require more trapping skill to use.
That is why you have luck with mouse traps. It works at level 0.

[cal_ka]

Originally posted by Shenji:

I remember the pzwiki said you should check traps every one hour, maybe 4 hours just a bit too long.
I'm still looking for the trapping magazines to make traps, where should I look for?

Damn, I hope that isn't true. Would be pretty tedious to have to drop what I'm doing every hour just to check the traps...

Originally posted by WillieSea:

The bigger traps require more trapping skill to use.
That is why you have luck with mouse traps. It works at level 0.

Oh I see, so at low levels, you can still set and bait the traps, but they won't work? That explains it, thanks.

[DeadlyDanDaMan]

At low levels, you just have a very low chance of catching anything because you suck at setting up and baiting traps properly. That's the logical explanation and what the Dev's are going for with the skill system, to try and emulate your characters real world knowledge and ability.

[Trigon (The Trash)]

Did you say stick traps *in* your neighbor's house? generally you want them outside.

[encodoc]

Also make sure you are far enough away from zombies and far enough into the forest. I've never been able to catch anything aside from mice/rats if I can't forage there. So my rule of thumb that works for me is if I can't forage, I'm not far enough away. Bait does go bad/disappear over time even with nothing around.